page_title: Alkaloid
section_title: Extraction
hierarchical_section_title: Alkaloid / Extraction
caption_attribution_description: English: picture of piperine crystals extracted from black pepper (Piper nigrum) - recrystallized from acetone Deutsch: Bild von Piperinkristallen isoliert aus Schwarzem Pfeffer (Piper nigrum) - umkristallisiert aus Aceton Italiano: Cristalli di piperina, recristallizzata con acetone, estratta dal pepe nero (Piper nigrum) Dansk: Billede af piperinkrystaller, der er udtrukket af Sort Peber ved omkrystallisering fra acetone. Polski: zdjęcie kryształów piperyny, wyekstrahowanych acetonem z pieprzu czarnego (Piper nigrum)
context_page_description: Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. In addition to carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, alkaloids may also contain oxygen, sulfur and, more rarely, other elements such as chlorine, bromine, and phosphorus.
  Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. They can be purified from crude extracts of these organisms by acid-base extraction, or solvent extractions followed by silica-gel column chromatography. Alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacological activities including antimalarial, antiasthma, anticancer, cholinomimetic, vasodilatory, antiarrhythmic, analgesic, antibacterial, and antihyperglycemic activities. Many have found use in traditional or modern medicine, or as starting points for drug discovery. Other alkaloids possess psychotropic and stimulant activities, and have been used in entheogenic rituals or as recreational drugs. Alkaloids can be toxic too.
context_section_description: Because of the structural diversity of alkaloids, there is no single method of their extraction from natural raw materials. Most methods exploit the property of most alkaloids to be soluble in organic solvents  but not in water, and the opposite tendency of their salts.
  Most plants contain several alkaloids. Their mixture is extracted first and then individual alkaloids are separated. Plants are thoroughly ground before extraction. Most alkaloids are present in the raw plants in the form of salts of organic acids. The extracted alkaloids may remain salts or change into bases. Base extraction is achieved by processing the raw material with alkaline solutions and extracting the alkaloid bases with organic solvents, such as 1,2-dichloroethane, chloroform, diethyl ether or benzene. Then, the impurities are dissolved by weak acids; this converts alkaloid bases into salts that are washed away with water. If necessary, an aqueous solution of alkaloid salts is again made alkaline and treated with an organic solvent. The process is repeated until the desired purity is achieved.
  In the acidic extraction, the raw plant material is processed by a weak acidic solution (e.g., acetic acid in water, ethanol, or methanol). A base is then added to convert alkaloids to basic forms that are extracted with organic solvent (if the extraction was performed with alcohol, it is removed first, and the remainder is dissolved in water). The solution is purified as described above.
  Alkaloids are separated from their mixture using their different solubility in certain solvents and different reactivity with certain reagents or by distillation.
  A number of alkaloids are identified from insects, among which the fire ant venom alkaloids known as solenopsins have received greater attention from researchers. These insect alkaloids can be efficiently extracted by solvent immersion of live fire ants  or by centrifugation of live ants  followed by silica-gel chromatography purification. Tracking and dosing the extracted solenopsin ant alkaloids has been described as possible based on their absorbance peak around 232 nanometers.
caption: Crystals of piperine extracted from black pepper.
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